A word from Alyssa, the 'Pinatas' costume creator:

My friend Amanda and I wanted to make our 2013 costume colorful and creative, and we came up with the perfect costume idea - PINATAS! We looked up a tutorial to roughly follow and after hours of work, it paid off! The materials we bought for this costume were grey bodycon dresses, rolls of different colored crepe paper streamers, and fabric glue. We cut the streamers into strips, cut fringe into them, then used fabric glue to glue them on to the dresses. For the ears we each took two paper mache cones, put fringe on them, then hot glued them to a thin plastic headband. Hope you all enjoy our pictures!

Hi there! I love your idea! Me and my friend want to do the same exact thing.... Although, we are having a hard time finding plain bodycon dresses. Any ideas of where to look? Thanks.

#3 comment by AlyssaSeptember 2, 2014

Hey! We got them at H&M! If you can't find them there or on the website, try forever 21 or the forever 21 website, they have a lot of simple dresses for low prices! Hope this helps!

#4 comment by JessiSeptember 6, 2014

Hi! Did y'all use a canvas or anything to stretch out the dress while making it? Or did y'all make it while wearing it?

#5 comment by Alyssa SmithSeptember 7, 2014

We put cardboard inside it while we glued all the crepe paper on! Just so you know it gets veryyyy tight even with the cardboard because of the glue, so it'll be hard to get on and will be super stiff for the first half hour or so, and someone else will probably have to ell you get it on and off, but once it's on it's amazing!

#6 comment by katOctober 11, 2014

What did u use at paper and how did u do it? I would love a step by step but it's ok if u just explain. Thanks! Love the idea so creative

#7 comment by Alyssa SmithOctober 12, 2014

http://www.ateaspoonofhappiness.com/diy-pinata-costume/

Here's the tutorial we followed to make ours! Hope this helps! It takes a lot of time but the end product is worth it!

#8 comment by marielOctober 15, 2014

was it hard to do the long sleeves on the dress?

#9 comment by Alyssa SmithOctober 16, 2014

A tank top dress would have made it easier, but where we live it would have been too cold to wear.. Doing the long sleeves wasn't hard until you got to the shoulder area when you have to start gluing the strips at an angle (you can see that's where our colors stops aligning) but it really wasn't too bad! :) just do one side at a time before flipping the dress over and doing the other side!

#10 comment by marielOctober 16, 2014

so you did the front at once then the back? you didnt just go all the way around the dress?

#11 comment by Alyssa SmithOctober 16, 2014

Correct, we did all of the front body part first, then let it dry overnight, then flipped it over with the cardboard still in it and did the back body part, then let it dry overnight, then did the front sleeves, let them dry, then the back sleeves

#12 comment by AshleyOctober 17, 2014

How did your costume hold up? Would you be able to wear it again?

#13 comment by Alyssa SmithOctober 17, 2014

Ehhh, it held up well, but probably only a one time wear costume. That's just because the paper got a little ruffled with due to the moisture in the air, and we were constantly bending down and moving around (we were working at a kids' fall festival) so the crepe paper ripped a little in certain spots (nothing major at all though)
Getting the costume off also was a struggle haha you definitely need help because it's tight

#14 comment by HopeOctober 18, 2014

Hi! How many rolls of crepe paper did y'all need per costume? Thanks!

#15 comment by Alyssa SmithOctober 19, 2014

Oooo good question...I don't remember honestly, I'd say get two per costume of each color. I know I have some extra of each color but I don't know how many rolls I started out with, sorry about that :/

#16 comment by AlexOctober 19, 2014

I just finished making my costume with a t-shirt dress and it definitely seems like it's going to be kind of tight. What do you think is the best way to pull it down without ripping any of the paper?

#17 comment by MaddieOctober 19, 2014

Super cute idea! I'm gonna be it for Halloween. I'm scared the paper streamers will rip. Did they rip for you? Also where did you get the bodycon dresses from?

#18 comment by Alyssa SmithOctober 19, 2014

Alex - have a friend help, I stood with my arms up and my friend basically had to pull it over me and all the way one a few inches at a time. For the first 30 minutes I could barely move but it started to loosen up and then was comfortable. I didn't put it on till the Halloween night because taking it off could definitely rip it a little bit

Maddie - for the most part, there were no rips, only a few, also I found the dresses at forever 21 super cheap, you could probably find them at h&m, or another store like it :)

#19 comment by MaddieOctober 21, 2014

Thank you so so so much! I love this idea

#20 comment by ShelbyOctober 22, 2014

What glue did you use to glue the cones onto the headband? How'd you secure it?

#21 comment by SaraOctober 22, 2014

I used plastic table cloths because I feared ripping while I am out.

#22 comment by GenevaOctober 23, 2014

thanks so much for this! I found your pictures on pinterest and me and my friend recreated our dresses based on yours! :) We are gonna be carrying sticks and bags of candy to throw at people lol If anyone is wondering about where to find cheap bodycon dresses we got ours at Forever 21 for $8!

#23 comment by Alyssa SmithOctober 23, 2014

Shelby - we used a hot glue gun I believe! It took a lot of glue because the parts of the cone attached to the thin headband are very small, but we made it work! We also bought a cheap set of like 4 headbands from target in case something broke while we were working on them :)

also, for anyone else I'm trying to upload a photo of what the costume looked like after halloween so you can all see the wear and tear on it.. i'm attaching it here but if you don't see it then I guess it won't work :/

#24 comment by MaryOctober 23, 2014

Do you think it would be fine if I used just regular streamers?

#25 comment by Alyssa SmithOctober 24, 2014

Mary - yeah! That's what I used, regular crepe paper streamers from a party supply store :) they also have them at target and probably Michael's (an art store in at least my area) and they should only be a dollar or two per roll

#26 comment by JodiOctober 24, 2014

What kind of glue did you use to glue the streamers on the dress?

#27 comment by Alyssa SmithOctober 24, 2014

Jodi - tacky glue :)
The bottles I used are in a gold bottle

#28 comment by Holly MeyerOctober 24, 2014

My friend and I are going as this for Halloween this year. The dresses look super duper cute and I'm hoping ours turn out just as well. How long did it take you guys to make them?

#29 comment by Alyssa SmithOctober 25, 2014

Holly - probably 10-12 hours altogether...we split it up over a few days so the glue would dry, I recommend starting as soon as possible!

#30 comment by MaceyOctober 27, 2014

hey! I love this idea, brilliant! I actually started on mine, however it was really bulky. how many layers of the same color did you put together? like I glues 4 stripes. thanks so much!

#31 comment by Alyssa SmithOctober 28, 2014

Macey - hi! I believe we did two strips on top of each other, and did each color twice before switching to the next color, so that would be two sets of two strips each :)

#32 comment by JennyOctober 29, 2014

When you did the sleeves, how did you do them? did you stretch them over anything to glue the pieces on?

#33 comment by Alyssa SmithOctober 29, 2014

I think we put thin strips of cardboard in them so they wouldn't stick :)

#34 comment by CassandraNovember 17, 2014

Absolutely awesome!

#35 comment by PamOctober 1, 2015

Hey me and my freind are going to go for this for Halloween is comfortable will it rip?

#36 comment by Alyssa SmithOctober 1, 2015

Hey Pam! It's a little stiff when you first put it on, but once you are in it for a little while it's comfy! Definitely glue the crepe paper on each side with cardboard in between the dress so you don't glue the back and front of the fabric together. It will stick a little but that's okay just pull it apart and it'll be okay!

#37 comment by pamOctober 2, 2015

thanks you rock

#38 comment by NikkiOctober 4, 2015

to make a dress that lasts in the wash machine or longer than one time, use color fabric. canvas fabric, felt, or suede. it would be terrible to take alltthat time and find you ruined your dress before your party.

#39 comment by KateOctober 25, 2015

Love this idea! Do you think that this would work on an oversized tshirt instead of a dress?

#40 comment by Alyssa SmithOctober 25, 2015

Yes I'm sure it would Kate! We just wanted something more form fitting:)

#41 comment by AmeliaOctober 16, 2016

What did you use for the ears?

#42 comment by Alyssa SmithOctober 17, 2016

Amelia,

I used cheap plastic headbands and got brown paper/cardboard-like cones from an arts and crafts store, then glued the streamers on like normal! :)

#43 comment by AmeliaOctober 17, 2016

Ok! Thanks so much! %uD83D%uDE04 %uD83D%uDE04 %uD83D%uDE04

#44 comment by BeeOctober 23, 2016

How many layers of crepe paper did you put per row?

#45 comment by Alyssa SmithOctober 24, 2016

2 layers per row!

#46 comment by kittyOctober 28, 2016

those costumes are so amazingly cute! you did a great job on them. it sounds like it took a steady hand and some patience to get them right, but it worked out beautifully. thanks for the great info on how to make them!

p.s. another thank you for being so kind to come back even two years after the original post to reply to questions people had. that really is nice to see someone is willing to do that. i hope you have another fun halloween this year! =^..^=

#47 comment by AlyssaOctober 28, 2016

Thanks Kitty! This has definitely been one of the highlites of my Halloween experiences :D hope you have a great one too!

#48 comment by GraceOctober 29, 2016

Hi, I was wondering how thick you cut the streamers. Did you cut them in half and then cut the fringe?

#49 comment by AlyssaOctober 29, 2016

Hey Grace!

No, we kept them as is, otherwise they probably would have been too thin in width when cutting the fringe out and it would be more prone to tears. :)